Event Coverage: Sema 2012 – Part 4.

I love American classics and this year I didn’t get the chance to check out nearly as many classic cruise nights as I would have liked so SEMA served as a great way for me to catch up on American Iron.

There were awesome builds literally as far as the eye could see and I had to constantly remind myself not to spend all of my time (or card space) on the classics.

Most of my favourite American builds from 2012 are below with a couple held over for future SEMA showstoppers.

Drag’N Kaiser

After following this build on Speedhunters it was great to be able to see it in the metal. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it came from the factory as a two door, the work is that good.

If you have not yet I recommend .

Pictures do not do this Gene Winfield paint job justiceNo flaws anywhere in sightThe white continued all the way through the center console and onto the back deck lidIt was also carried over onto the steering wheel

Ford

Regret not taking more photos of this but at the same time I don’t remember taking this oneBio Customz 51 MercBeautiful altered wheelbase Ford FalconShow quality engine bay with a motor that could probably pull a few stumpsThis 32 known as the ‘Sylvester II’ has quite the back story behind it which can be Hard to see with the all that chrome but that’s a chain operated throttleAnd if that was not crazy enough chain operated shift linkage tooRiddler award winning 56 Ford Sunliner known as the “Suncammer”Original 427 cammer motor under the hood hopped up a wee bitPerhaps the best looking Thunderbird I have seenSuper nice interiorEasily one of the best looking engine bays at the show in my opinionThat’s 1150 ponies worth of Gale Banks Engineering 6.0-liter v8

Mach 40

Created using original ’69 Mustang Mach One body parts and built to the owners vision over three years the Mach 40 is an incredible machine that had a number of people talking. In fact the site is down for exceeding it’s bandwidth and I’d wager what I lost in Vegas this car is to blame.

Until it goes back up here’s the nitty gritty; a 2006 Ford GT 5.4 with a four litre Whipple supercharger makes it go, it’s got C6 suspension all around, and inside is a custom interior with Italian leather. The wheels are again custom and based off the ’69 GT Magnum 500 wheels.

The car ended up winning the Gran Tourismo award for it’s category (best hot rod) which means it will be in the next game.

The idea was for the car to just be a “little” wider than the standard 69 Mach OneThe front and rear glass is original ’69Underneath that OEM rear glass is a Whipple charged 5.4L that has a horse power dial that can fo from 600- 850 on the fly

Cadillac

One of my “if I were rich” projects would be to make a screen accurate Ecto-1 that’s slammed to the ground and this ‘Thundertaker’ is the closest I’ve seen to that.

This is admittedly a hell of a lot cleaner than an Ecto-1 would ever beGetting a side profile of this thing was TOUGH it’s huge

Chevrolet

Speed Garage 49 Chevy’53 in the PPG ‘Watering-hole’Classic drop top ImpalaThe ‘El-Rey’ ImpalaInsanely detailed everywhere you lookAnother look at the Brookwood brought by AccuairI only have a engine shot of this SS… must have been the best partThe owner of this Vette used to own the ‘worlds fastest’ street legal Corvette?Wonder if this is the new Worlds fastest…Despite reminding me of freight train wheels these big steels are starting to grow on meI had no idea the owner of Tapout was into carsCloser look at that LS3Awesome grocery getterRace seating for 4!I read somewhere that the first generation Camaro is one of the most popular cars at SEMA every year… I believe itLSX powered with lots of CFNever too much attention to detailI’m never opening my hood againGoolsby Customs 69 Camaro500+ hp LS3 surrounded by stamped panels68 built by Pratt & Miller Restorations760 horse LS9The ‘Tec 9’ Camaro built by Mitch Henderson Designs was a beautiful car and employed two colours I would have never thought to combine2″ Wider quarters to house those monster wheels

Classics Reborn?

Not sure what to make of these really and that’s why I am ending with them. I think in both cases we should stop trying to recreate the past, your thoughts?

Daytona Super Bird kit for the new ChallengerLooks so… big.This GTO I was on the fence about and then the headlight covers opened and…well… angel eyes are best left on BMWS